I wanted to put together a little wish/ponder list for my 81 Stepside Daily Driver. If I do it elsewhere, I will lose the file or piece of paper, and here, as long as Cap'n doesn't ban me for my filthy mouth, it will live forever.
I want to get started, but I am so undecided. Mainly because of the fear of putting way too much money into a truck that I will never be able to sell for what I have in it. I would love to go nuts and do everything(I know we all would). Currently, it's running and it gets me where I need to go and I have less than $2500 invested total. But, the motor will eventually give up the ghost and I don't even think a 383 will use as much gas as the struggling 305 does.
Also, I would love to have the time, facilities, and resources to take this thing down to the frame and start from the ground up, but being my daily driver, that is going to be really difficult.
Mechanical:
Repair A/C(Done)
Tune Up(Plugs and wires done)
Tighten Tilt Steering Column(Done)
Replace Master Cylinder(soft brakes)(Done)
Replace Door Striker Latch Bolt Bushings(Replaced with a piece of the 1/2 PVC from Lowe's, PERFECT - no more rattle, door closes great!)
Shorten Steerling Column
Motor Replacement(Currently a soft running 305) - Rebuilt 305, Crate 350, or 383???
Completely new exhaust from the headers back. Does have a nice sounding Flowmaster, may save that
New Suspension, Shocks, Springs, Shackles, larger brakes - 3/5 drop
Outer Aesthetics:
Rims(15s,18s,or20s) - NOT going bigger than 20's, probably 18's, but the tires for 15's are SO much more affordable, and these trucks look sweet with raised white letter tires.
New Oak in Bed, Bedcover
Back bumper, rollpan, or ZR1 style rollpan with taillights
1 Piece windows(I want these SO bad!)
Paint the undercarriage, frame
Inside the Ride:
Dynamat
Custom fiberglass dash with in dash iPad mount(don't know if I want the iPad as the MAIN head unit or just put in a switch selector. Thinking selector.)
Stock gauges with tach added - but redesigned
Rebuild airbox and air vents(This will probably get done twice as A/C will become my primary concern in about a month or two)
Replace the bench with buckets
Custom fiberglass console (connecting to dash?)
Custom door panels
New Kick Panels - probably order these since they're cheap enough to avoid the headache
Paint(I'm thinking PPG Mercedes Silver) inside and out
System:
(2) 10's with about 1200 watts pushing them
Steering controls for volume, song selection, Bluetooth
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